Anything Goes

explanations. Do you think there’s any possibility of Chief Henderson accidentally coming to discover who killed Billy? Or even Uncle Horatio?“
    “I wouldn’t count on it.“
    “Well, we have to count on someone figuring it out,“ Lily said. “Otherwise, Robert and I remain suspects and a murderer is free to go his own way and possibly kill someone else.”
     
    She found Robert sitting on the bench at the far end of the lawn. He had the telescope and was studying something on the river below. “I’ve had that talk with Mr. Prinney about the people on the boat when Uncle Horatio died,“ she said, sitting down beside him.
    “Speaking of boats and their passengers, take a look at the platinum blonde on the boat down there,“ he said, handing her the telescope.
    Lily’s telescoped and bobbing gaze wandered all over the landscape before locating the boat. It was a sailing yacht and a girl was standing at the front end (Is that pointy part called the bow? she wondered), posing as if she were the figurehead. “So?“ Lily asked.
    “So she looks good to me,“ Robert said with a leer.
    “Oh, Robert!“ Lily said, giving back the telescope.
    “What did Mr. Prinney have to say?“ he said, giving the girl yet another longing look before the yacht below them passed behind some woods and disappeared from view.
    Lily recounted both the first and second conversations.
    “So Uncle and that bastard Winslow were chums?“ Robert said.
    “It seems so. They did a lot of business together. Mr. Prinney said they were much alike.“
    “That doesn’t surprise me,“ Robert said. “So Prinney thinks Winslows’ out of the running? What a pity. I’d have loved to have a reason to pin it on him.“
    “Mr. Prinney did say that in the past couple years they hadn’t done as much together, but suggested that it might have been over slightly differing theories of investing in land now that things are so bad. But there hadn’t been any outright tiff between them.“
    “Differing theories? Why are you fidgeting like that, Lily?“
    “Fidgeting? I never fidget! Oh, all right. He said Uncle Horatio had been buying up land that had been abandoned by those who lost their money and that Major Winslow might not have liked the idea.“
    “He’s exactly the sort to love that idea.“
    “Mr. Prinney didn’t claim this was true, simply that it was one explanation.“
    “Okay, let me get this straight. According to Mr. Prinney, and with no knowledge on our part, he says Mr. Winningham—that’s the incompetent banker from New York City, right?—Winningham is out of the running because he’s physically too feeble.”
    Robert raised a finger of his left hand. “And Fred Eggers is out because he wasn’t even invited along and was violently seasick the entire time.”
    “Right,“ Lily said.
    Robert raised another finger. “Jonathan Winslow, the next-door neighbor, is out because Uncle Horatio and he were bosom friends with a lot of mutually profitable property and attitudes.“ Robert raised a third finger.
    “I presume Mimi is out, or Mr. Prinney wouldn’t have hired her to work in the house if he’d thought she was a murderer.“
    “Mimi! You can’t even consider Mimi,“ Lily said.
    “Why? Because she’s a woman? Lily, think about it. She’s strong as a horse. You’ve seen her beating the stuffing out of those rugs and hauling tons of laundry up and down the stairs. She could easily have coshed Uncle. And she thought for quite a few years that she was Uncle’s illegitimate child and might inherit.“
    “But she got over that,“ Lily objected.
    “So she says. But even if she did, Uncle Horatio’s death gave her what she wanted. She got away from Billy and the Dreadful Aunts, got to go back to living in what she’d always considered her home, even if it was as a maid, not the owner. She likes her job, it seems. She cleans stuff that doesn’t even need cleaning, just for the joy of it. And now she’s rid of a husband who made her life a misery as well. And don’t forget the matter of the missing ten-dollar bill.“
    “Robert, I don’t like this. And I still maintain that if Mr. Prinney would hire her to work in the house, he must trust her entirely to be innocent of any wrongdoing.“
    “But that’s Mr. Prinney’s view, Lily. It’s good of him to share what he knows and thinks of these people, but it doesn’t mean he’s right about all of them. We have to eliminate Billy, too, since it’s